Manziel, in a Heisman first, finishes first in first season

Johnny Football

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Quarterback Johnny Manziel of the Texas A&M University Aggies poses with the Heisman Memorial Trophy after being named the 78th Heisman Memorial Trophy Award winner at the Best Buy Theater on Saturday in New York City.

NEW YORK – Johnny Manziel spent his 20th birthday Thursday, with what little time he had, playing nine holes of golf with his family. That night, he accepted the Davey O’Brien Award as the nation’s top quarterback. That left no time for birthday gifts.

His father, Paul, had planned to get him a stereo system for his Camaro, as if college football needed another reminder that Manziel is merely a freshman.

When he again stepped into the spotlight Saturday for the Heisman Trophy ceremony, he flashed a wide grin, joking with the other finalists, the Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o and the Kansas State quarterback Collin Klein.

When Manziel was named the winner of the 78th Heisman Trophy, making him the first freshman to do so, his mouth was agape, his eyes bugged in shock. The grin returned when he picked up the trophy and kissed the top of it.

Neither Te’o, the heart of Notre Dame’s renaissance season, nor Klein could top Manziel’s charisma, his Johnny Football nickname, or the did-you-see-that plays he made for Texas A&M.

“Being able to break that barrier, it’s such an honour,” Manziel, a redshirt freshman, said. “It’s so humbling for me to be the first freshman to win and really make history. I can’t explain it. It’s just truly so awesome, something I’m so, so pumped about.”

Manziel received 474 first-place votes, 153 more than Te’o, who finished second. The result, awarding Manziel the Heisman over two seniors who played with an understated mastery, was expected, yet progressive for talented freshmen to come.

A few freshman had come close. Usually they were players with athletic ability beyond their years, Herschel Walker in 1980, Adrian Peterson in 2004, and Michael Vick, to whom Manziel is often compared, in 1999. Each was beaten out by an upperclassman, and effectively told to wait his turn.

Not Manziel.

“I always had the mind-set: I want to be the biggest person in this offense and I want to be the catalyst, and the person that makes this thing run,” he said Friday during a round-table discussion with reporters, as he played with his wristwatch.

Just months ago – before he emerged from relative obscurity to become one of college football’s most outstanding players – his coach Kevin Sumlin had colored him careless with the football and his father had called him immature.

Amid a quarterback competition, Manziel struggled in spring practice, though Sumlin’s offense was similar to what he had run in high school. Then in June, he was arrested after being involved in a fight outside a bar in College Station, Texas, and for providing the police with a fake ID.

He recognized he needed help and met with the quarterback guru George Whitfield Jr. to streamline his throwing mechanics, particularly on the run. By September, he was the starter, still serving his punishment for the arrest, still appeasing Sumlin.

But his name did not register much interest outside of Texas.

At first, he rushed himself, taking off on the run at any sign of trouble, instead of waiting patiently to throw. Florida and Louisiana State, two top-10 Southeastern Conference teams, corralled him and beat Texas A&M. A photograph of him dressed as Scooby Doo with a scantily clad woman at a Halloween party went viral.

With each week, though, he matured, kept calm, and his Johnny Football reputation and swagger grew. So did a mystique, fueled by a team rule that prohibited first-year players from speaking to the news media. The public could only judge him by his gyrating, chest-thumping, exhilarating plays.

“He’s a human video game, that’s my description of Johnny Football,” said Te’o, who then imagined what that would be like and added, “You just run circles with him as a quarterback and then you can either bomb it, or just outrun everybody and score.”

Manziel did something like that to Alabama, who was ranked No. 1 and undefeated when Manziel produced 345 total yards, 2 touchdowns, a 29-24 upset, and enough gutsy plays that everyone would remember his name. His coaches were thrilled with more modest steps, like how he aptly audibled at the line of scrimmage.

“His approach to the game has never been that of a freshman,” Kliff Kingsbury, Manziel’s offensive coordinator, said by telephone Friday. “He never thought the moment was too big, he never looked intimidated, he never felt like he didn’t belong.”

He added: “With the tenacity and the fearlessness that he showed, that’s really contagious. You could just see it, the rest of the offense says, OK, this guy, every time he takes a snap, we’re going to have a chance to do something great.”

The moments and yards accrued, and Manziel became the first freshman to throw for more than 3,000 yards and rush for more than 1,000 yards in a single season. His 4,600 total yards were more than the recent Heisman winners Cam Newton (2010) and Tim Tebow (2007) compiled. All the while, John David Crow, Texas A&M’s only other Heisman winner (1957), watched and admired Manziel.

Now the college football world wonders: what’s Manziel’s encore?

Manziel said the trophy would serve as motivation. He still has much to learn.

Tongue in cheek, grinning as he has seemed to do all season, Manziel said: “I want to keep it right next to my bed. But I’m in college, a lot of people come through the house, and I live in a college neighbourhood, so it may not be a good idea.”